Micah Richards insists 'Manchester City can match Tottenham'

Manchester City defender Micah Richards insists the Eastlands club can at
least match Tottenham’s achievement in reaching the Champions League
quarter-finals at the first time of asking if Sheikh Mansour provides
Roberto Mancini with the cash to strengthen his squad.

Mancini, though, may be forced to raise the majority of his funds from selling the likes of Emmanuel Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz and even Carlos Tévez as the world’s richest club look to conform to Uefa’s stringent Financial Fair Play guidelines, due to be introduced incrementally from the 2012/13 season.

“I have watched a lot of the Champions League [in recent years],” said Richards. “I watched Spurs this season and they did well getting to the quarter-finals. There is no reason why we should not do that. I am sure we will invest in the summer and make ourselves even stronger.

“A lot of people have put us down and said we were not good enough to reach the Champions League but we have proved people wrong. As players, we know what people say. They are always having a go at us for spending money, but look at us: it has worked.”

That blueprint, though, is likely to have to change as soon as this summer. Even with Champions League qualification assured, City maintain there will be no repeat of the sprees which have marked their previous summer transfer windows, with the club now intent on cherry-picking quality additions.

Attempts to lure Alexis Sanchez of Udinese and Bolton’s Gary Cahill are likely, while Wesley Sneijder, the Inter Milan midfielder, and Edinson Cavani of Napoli are also on Mancini’s shortlist. The latter, particularly, may be difficult to prise from Italy, with Napoli determined to retain him for at least one more season. Hulk, Porto’s Brazilian striker, is an alternative.

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Mancini may also attempt to beat Manchester United to sign Everton’s Jack Rodwell. The Goodison Park club may yet be tempted to sell one of their brightest prospects should they be offered over £20 million.

Those arrivals will be tempered by the sales of a raft of the deadwood acquired - often at great cost - in the course of City’s evolution from also-rans. Wayne Bridge, Roque Santa Cruz, Jo, Craig Bellamy, Felipe Caicedo, Emmanuel Adebayor, Shay Given and Shaun Wright-Phillips will all be informed they are available for transfer as the club look to raise funds for new recruits. Much of Mancini’s thinking will depend, though, on Tévez’s potential sale, worth as much as £50 million.

City’s determination to rein in their spending is not attributable to a lack of interest from Sheikh Mansour - who is not due to attend Saturday’s FA Cup final - but to a desire to meet Financial Fair Play regulations.

Uefa intend to ask a number of clubs they believe may be in danger of breaching FFP to allow the game’s governing body to start shadowing them from this autumn. An independent panel will assess sponsorship deals in a bid to stop benefactors funding clubs in clandestine fashion.